When talking about the medical crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip Nasser Hospital is a typical example of the serious difficulties which the health sector and its hospitals suffer from as a result of the Israeli blockade and the sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority.
Some of these difficulties which Nasser hospital is facing and threaten it with closure include its failure to provide cleaning services in its sections vital medicines for patients and salaries for medical crews.
Such tragic situation in this hospital has raised fears among patients and citizens about their own safety and made them feel very upset about the wretched state this facility has turned into; however its medical and administrative crews are struggling to do whatever they could to fulfill their duties towards patients.
Nasser Hospital which was founded 49 years ago has unfortunately lost its luster after its sections and corridors have become dirty stained and strewn with waste materials. The cleaning problem in this hospital and others started after cleaning companies stopped providing their services in protest at the government’s failure to pay them for more than four months.
The hospital provides its medical services for more than half a million people from Khan Younis and Rafah cities but many of its sections have become unable to operate normally after several medical equipment sustained malfunctions and important medical supplies and drugs became out of stock not to mention the trash and cleaning problem.
As for the cleaning issue about 80 cleaners staged a sit-in recently outside the hospital after their employer (the company they work for) failed to pay their salaries for four consecutive months and of course the company cannot pay them because it has received nothing from the health ministry for the services it provided during those months.
832 cleaners working in different government medical facilities including Nasser Hospital launched a strike last Sunday to demand their salaries.
A Palestinian woman who visited the hospital recently along with her pregnant daughter complained about the spread of waste and blood stains in the hospital’s maternity ward. “What’s happening is unacceptable. My daughter came to receive treatment not to die” she said.
She also denounced the government for shunning its responsibilities towards Gaza whose population suffers from a dire humanitarian situation. “Why are they treating us like this? We have become tired and unable to endure such thing.”
She called on Palestinian premier Rami al-Hamdallah and his health minister to visit Gaza hospitals and see closely the catastrophic conditions inside them.
